Who's Ready To Lose 15 Pounds In The Next 30 Days? #3030Challenge

I love the holidays. I love the food, family, fun... I hate the fat. It never fails that I gain a few extra pounds eating, drinking and being merry. To combat this, I try to get myself in a healthy lifestyle mindset. You know the saying, it's easier to keep the weight off now, then work it off later.

So what's the plan you ask?

It's 30/30 Challenge Time!

Here's the lowdown...

While watching an episode of, "The Doctors", about quick diet fads, exercise plans and healthy lifestyle changes, one of the programs stuck out to me,The 30/30 Walking Challenge.The challenge requires you to walk (or do some physical activity) for thirty minutes a day for thirty days.For each diet/exercise plan, the show followed one participant to see if the plan actually worked. The girl followed reported that by the 14th day she was already feeling,"great." She admitted it was difficult at first, but that by the end of the second week, she began to look forward to her walks. By the end of the 30/30 challengeshe lost ELEVEN pounds total! All she did was walk!

Did you know, walking regularly can:

Lower your heart attack risk,

Help you lose and maintain weightloss

Add years to your life,

Help you sleep better.

Better your over all health and mood.

Imagine all of these things, IN LESS THAN 30 DAYS!! (Don't believe me? click HERE to watch a short video about this program.) Another great aspect to this program is that it's FREE. All you have to do is walk to reap the benefits. No gym membership, diet or personal trainer screaming at you necessary.

My friends, just think... in two weeks you could be sleeping better, reducing your cholesterol and chances for a heart attack, losing weight, and become a healthier, happier person. How could you not want to at least try? I am tempted to just call it the 30/15 challenge, because I have faith after you walk for thirty minutes for 15 days straight, you will want to keep walking.

Here is the plan:

On October 1st, start walking! ( Or today for that matter!) The beauty is that the program will end the day before Halloween, just in time to be feeling great before the holiday temptations hit. We all know, if you are feeling great, you will make healthier lifestyle choices. Hopefully even keep walking at least 3-4 times a week!

I really want this to be something that you can easily incorporate into your day. In an effort to help you all get creative, I have come up with a few ideas to easily blend the challenge into your day!

1. If you take public transportation to work, walk to the next furthest stop or station. (I know for those non-morning people this is a stupid suggestion)

2. At lunch, walk 15 minutes away from your desk, eat, then walk back--maybe even the long way back.

3. On the weekends go explore a new (historic) town or nature trail with the family.

4. New mothers on maternity leave, this challenge is CRUCIAL for you. Go for a walk by yourself every evening when your partner gets home. Of course you can take the baby, but getting out for some alone time will kill two birds with one stone for you!

5. Only need a couple things from the store? If one is close enough, walk there!

6. Walk the kids to school for the month.

7. On rainy days, clean or organize a closet for 30 minutes, better yet, go to the indoor mall for some retail therapy--Again, kill two birds with one stone!

8. Go walk through an outdoor mall.

9. For a week straight walk out of your front door and take a different street or path and see what you find!

10. Take your walking shoes to work with you, and put them on before you leave. The first step is ALWAYS the hardest!

HINT: Tell as many people as you can that you are doing this. Get a support group to help encourage and hold you accountable!

YOU CAN DO THIS! It's just 30 minutes for thirty days. It's not hard, or an on going commitment. This is a challenge that you know you can do. Let me know how I can help. I LOVE getting your emails and hearing your excitement! Keep them coming!

Firsttimemomanddad(at)gmail(dot)com (<---I write it like that to keep the idiot spammers from annoying me... as much as possible!)

Also, make sure you are following FTM&D on your favorite social media page to stay up to date! Please also feel free to post your walking photos to the First Time Mom and Dad Facebook page.

April is an award-winning writer, blogger and proud debut novelist - The Devlyn Disguise. Her work has been published in over ten countries and four languages. From books to newspapers, to print/online magazines and everything in between, you can find her work. For more about April, Visit AprilMcCormick.com

Last year's challenge was great! I helped me to get in the mindset of exercising regularly, and the extra pounds lost motivated me to eat right. I even started going to Yoga when the weather made it too cold to walk outside. I HIGHLY recommend the challenge!!!